Wednesday, July 15th 2009
Gates Downplays Chrome OS
Google's recent announcement of the Chrome OS, a web-oriented operating system that aims to use practicality and speed as its USPs, created more than just a few waves in the IT world. The firm later added that Chrome was going to be a free software, and has the support of some of the biggest names in the industry. At the receiving end of a potential competitor both in the operating system and cloud computing businesses, undoubtedly is Microsoft.
In an interview with CNet's Ina Fried, Bill Gates took the liberty of commenting on this development and implied that the waves Chrome OS created, are but in a teacup. "There's many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways," Gates said, "In some ways I am surprised people are acting like there's something new. I mean, you've got Android running on Netbooks. It's got a browser in it," he added.
Gates further went on to downplay Chrome OS saying that there's nothing much left to talk about it, since Google kept such a low profile on how it's going to implement the idea. "The more vague they are, the more interesting it is," he said. Google earlier announced that it wants its developer community to focus on web-based applications, rather than Linux-based ones, so the application has the broadest compatible platform base. Perhaps Chrome OS will then serve as the best client platform for these applications.
A similar statement came from Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, who said that the Windows is the right approach, rather than a browser-centric OS such as Chrome. "We don't need a new operating system," said Ballmer. "What we do need to do is to continue to evolve Windows, Windows Applications, IE (Internet Explorer), the way IE works in totality with Windows and how we build applications like Office...and we need to make sure we can bring our customers and partners with us," he added. Both Ballmer and Gates stressed that having two major client operating systems isn't necessarily a positive thing. Google maintains that its Chrome OS will be consumer-ready by the second half of 2010.
Sources:
1, 2
In an interview with CNet's Ina Fried, Bill Gates took the liberty of commenting on this development and implied that the waves Chrome OS created, are but in a teacup. "There's many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways," Gates said, "In some ways I am surprised people are acting like there's something new. I mean, you've got Android running on Netbooks. It's got a browser in it," he added.
Gates further went on to downplay Chrome OS saying that there's nothing much left to talk about it, since Google kept such a low profile on how it's going to implement the idea. "The more vague they are, the more interesting it is," he said. Google earlier announced that it wants its developer community to focus on web-based applications, rather than Linux-based ones, so the application has the broadest compatible platform base. Perhaps Chrome OS will then serve as the best client platform for these applications.
A similar statement came from Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, who said that the Windows is the right approach, rather than a browser-centric OS such as Chrome. "We don't need a new operating system," said Ballmer. "What we do need to do is to continue to evolve Windows, Windows Applications, IE (Internet Explorer), the way IE works in totality with Windows and how we build applications like Office...and we need to make sure we can bring our customers and partners with us," he added. Both Ballmer and Gates stressed that having two major client operating systems isn't necessarily a positive thing. Google maintains that its Chrome OS will be consumer-ready by the second half of 2010.
134 Comments on Gates Downplays Chrome OS
I'm not looking for ultra speed, anyway (not that I've ever had a problem with Ubunut's speed) -- I'm looking for ease-of-use. Nothing is easier to me than buying a laptop from Dell for $299 that comes with Ubuntu presintalled.
The last thing I want to do is start messing around with slackware or gentoo or something -- I don't care how fast they are. The things I've heard about gentoo scare me, for instance. :laugh:
Slack(even the root distro) isnt even close to that bad, and Vector and many other slack based distros have made it easy peezy to setup and use, sure they dont got the MASSIVE repositories that ubuntu has, but if you cant find an app in their repo's you can just request it OR download the RPM and convert it(pretty easy really), some distros even have it setup so they auto compile apps from their source files using the proper optimizations for the systems they are on(makes the app faster and run better)
the only windows app that I have found that works like that is Paint.net and thats due to how proper .net programing works(proper .net apps can be 64bit on 64bit windows and 32bit on 32bit windows and can compile themselves on install)
And I have never had to reinstall OS X over a problem yet. You talk as if that's a normal thing, and it isn't. You've seen it happen what, once or twice? And then you only did it because tech support told you to. Like linux has a good tech support line as well, ooops, oh wait a minute, what linux tech support line? How is that significant? I've been using OS X since it's release, and any problems I have that prevent booting are usually always fixed by a permissions repair in Disk Utility, or in extreme cases, booting to the install DVD, and running a permissions repair from from Disc Utility on the install disc. The fact is, your OS X knowledge is lacking, and as such, your couple of bad experiences were made a lot worse by you not knowing what to do. OS X repair gets every bit as complicated as Linux or Windows repair at times. Nothing you can do about it. Sometimes shit goes wrong, no matter the OS.
At least we agree on Ubuntu. I hate that distro. lol.
And for the record, just in case I didn't mention it to anyone, I run Fedora normally. If I want a deb distro, I grab Debian.Grab Debian. It's a proper deb distro. Ubuntu is crap compared to it. And if you wanted it to just work, you would've grabbed it with Windows. :D :p
For that matter, why do I need to bother downloading, burning, and tweaking another distro again? :laugh:
and adding more repo's to gslapt is easy, surprisingly easy infact.I have had to call them far more then a couple times, enlarge due to a few chicks I met at the local community college, they bought mac's because they where "cute" and the person at the college bookstore said they where easy to use and never had those "pc problems", they all have had various problems that caused apple to tell them to reinstall, them being the "dumb blonde" type(tho none of them are blonde....) had to ask me for help, oh did i mention i really really hate macmini's? i convenced apple to just send me an hdd to toss in one when i convenced them the hdd was going out, took a week to get the drive to me(called monday and it was the next monday or tuesday when it arrived) getting those little things open......well its a chore, replaced the drive, setup the system and the webcam(Built into the apple monitor she bought) wouldnt work, called apple, guess what their fix was.......reinstall, this didnt surprise me, and the fact it didnt work didnt surprise me either, eventually got it all straitened out by calling the local apple shop and they emailed what i needed to me, seems alot of the disks that apple sent to people with serten mini models where missing drivers for some devices >.<I have hated it since I tried other distro's and found slack based builds, its like they intentionaly try and make it suck ass or something.exectly, hell Mepis was great till they started feeding off noobuntu....as to the image, yeah that fits most gentoo users i know, and they dont get why i dont like linux for day to day use as a gamer-geek, I dont fell like recompiling fucking wine every time a new ver or game comes out :P
As for the web cam in OS X (or any issues with missing kexts, for that matter), all you had to do was update with the device plugged in. And just because Apple tech says reinstall, you know damn well that's not what always needs done. All tech support lines are like that, and look for the easy way out. This isn't exclusive to Apple, so stop bringing it up like it's a fault with OS X, because it isn't.
And yeah, I liked Mepis back in the day, where you could boot it live, but use a USB drive to keep you user stuff saved, that way you OS was 100% customizable and portable. And this was done via a simple preference pane. No command line, or advanced configuration needed. Now it's just crap.
And yeah alot of techsupport lines pull that, but in my experiance apples the only one that says reinstall quite that much, most of them want to do remote desktop to fix the system for you, hell thats how my father gets stuff fixed on his dell, he even extended his service contract 2 more years so he can keep having them fix his bluetooth keyboard/mouse problems and drivers for new devices like their office laser printer(his home office printer wouldnt install on vista due to UAC issues, dell had to download a diffrent driver to get it working for him)
and mepis was nice, but they went to being part of the noobuntu alliance and it went downhill :(
Honestly it shocked the hell out of me seeing him using citrix because i know it wasnt part of the os install, went and looked and he had added it himself...........was flaberghasted to be honest......hes a real dumbass and he managed to get it working so he could get some files off his work system.......
And what is Vector based on? I don't think I've ever tried it.
vector is slack based, highly optimized and they try and keep it easy to use, but dont treat the user like a noobtard moron either, you still have root access(infact you set that account up duing install as well as your user accounts)
I have managed to run vector's older SOHO editions and even this current vl6 on an old ass laptop i have for testing, 233mmx cpu with 208mb ram and a 5.6gb hdd, and its USEABLE, not fast but useable, it can even play ogg music as you type stuff up, try even getting debian/ubuntu or fedora installed on this POS and it will error during install, IF you manage to get it fully installed it will chug so bad you cant really use it, but under VL using xfce or LXDM its quite useable, not lightning fast ofcorse but USEABLE!!!!
Wolvix is another good slack based distro, tho its a bit more work to setup(no gui installer unlike vl6)
I also had some like lunar linux that compile themselves on install, but they take DAYS to compile on slower older systems so its not worth the bother.
For noobies I still say that Xandros is the best bet as it will support most windows apps "out of the box" due to it having crossover built-in and the repo being HUGE and designed so that anybody who can use a mouse can use it(no dependancy issues because it deals with them on its own)
but as a 2nd option thats FREE vector is my top choice, it really is just EASY TO MANAGE, oh, and yes it has a few querks, but nothing i havent seen windows do at times, like nic cards that wont get DHCP auto forcing a driver reinstall or config change/reset, but unlike windows VL makes that easy to deal with as u can just enter the network manager and change 2 settings, restart and it works, windows.......oi, dont even get me started about how much hassle xp sp2 gave me with nic's wired and wireless!!!(stupid windows firewall!!!!)